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Task force readies to save Gola wildlife corridor
Experts predict good returns from basmati
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ITBP launches website on yatra
Shopping carnival from today
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Task force readies to save Gola wildlife corridor
Dehradun, June 18 A key corridor for tigers and elephants, the Gola river wildlife corridor links Terai Central and Terai West divisions. It has been in the thick of news recently after reports of blockages on the corridor were revealed by the Wildlife Trust of India. Taking into account the severity of the matter, the Union Minister for Environment and Forest was forced to visit the Gola corridor recently and direct for the formation of a task force comprising officials of the Wildlife Institute of India, Wildlife Trust of India and other stake holders for getting a solution to the vexed problem. The Bindukhatta mammoth encroachments followed by ITBP and IOC campuses and the railway infrastructure, all have added to the fragmentation of the Gola corridor. The Bindukhatta settlement is a major irritant due to involvement of politicians, who strongly contest uprooting of Bindukhatta inhabitants. The Wildlife Institute of India Dehradun in 2004 has come up with a comprehensive study report entitled “Conservation of tiger and other species in Terai Arc Landscape. The report focused on all 12 Indian corridors apart from five corridors on the Nepal side that are part of the Terai Arc Landscape. But, then all hopes are still not lost forever. Though the task of securing the Gola corridor looks challenging, it is not impossible. WII sources confirm that there could be a way out to secure the Gola corridor with minimum human displacement. A stretch of land from 500 metres wide and 2.5 km in length from the original vast Gola corridor can serve the purpose. WII experts strongly back such arrangements as it would only affect a mere 40-50 households of Bindukhatta leaving a majority of them untouched and even manage to get space without touching ITBP and IOC establishments. “If this 2.5 km long and 500 metre wide piece is secured from the Gola corridor and the patch fenced sideways on this stretch, the arrangements could work wonders for wildlife particularly elephants and tigers,” say WII experts. Referring to the importance of the Gola corridor, WII experts believe that a secured Gola corridor will facilitate the much-needed dispersal of tigers and minimise rising incidents of man-animal conflict. Uttarakhand forest records confirm rise in the number of man-wildlife conflicts in the Pantnagar region of Terai due to obstruction of the Gola corridor. “Gola certainly stands as potential corridor and securing it will facilitate the movement of wild animals and allow dispersing tiger from even places like Corbett to settle in new areas,” says Dr AK Singh, Senior Coordinator of the Wildlife Trust of India, Dehradun. The task force will be at work shortly and a suggestive work plan will be in the offing in three months from now. Now in focus for being a troubled spot, the Gola corridor can also turn into a conservation message for the country if it is secured.
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Experts predict good returns from basmati
Pantnagar, June 18 This forecast has been made by a team of Agricultural Economists of Gobind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology here. The team led by Dr Jagdish Kumar did a market study under the National Agriculture Innovation Project of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) entitled ‘Establishing and networking of market intelligence centres in India’. The said project is under operation at the University. One of the objectives of this project is to make price forecasts well in advance of sowing of selected agricultural commodities and during harvesting. The research team of the University had conducted market survey at Rudrapur regulated market, a major market for traditional basmati paddy in Uttarakhand, and analysed the market price data which had prevailed during the last fifteen years in this market. The results of econometric analysis showed that the market prices of traditional basmati paddy in Rudrapur market would be ruling in the range of Rs 2,500 per quintal to Rs 3,300 per quintal in October, Rs 2,500 per quintal to Rs 3,350 per quintal in November and Rs 2,700 per quintal to Rs 3,400 per quintal in December. However, the traders of the market revealed that the prices of traditional basmati paddy would be ranging between Rs 2,200 per quintal to Rs 3,500 per quintal during these months, which are slightly on the higher side than the results of econometric analysis. The team has predicted that based on the present government policies and above results the market prices of the basmati paddy are expected to range between Rs 2,500 per quintal to Rs 3,400 per quintal during the period from October to December. The farmers planning to grow traditional basmati paddy in the coming season on their farms may decide the acreage under paddy crop considering these forecasted prices besides other conditions. According to University sources, the traders of Rudrapur market have revealed that November end and December are the peak arrival months while January and February are the lean arrival months for paddy in the market. According to some experts it is also expected that farmers will be less inclined to grow Pusa-1121 variety due to decline in its prices and will shift to traditional basmati varieties like HBC 19 and CSR-30, in this season. Normal sowing of paddy is expected in this Kharif season with the expectation of a good south-west monsoon. The major paddy producing districts in Uttarakhand are Udham Singh Nagar, Dehradun and Haridwar. University sources said the area under paddy crop in Uttarakhand during 2008-09 was 0.3 million hectares and production was 0.58 million tonne.
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Tibetans, Jains too believe in Kailash Mansarovar
Pitthoragarh, June 18 As the Hindus believe that on Mount Kailash Lord Shiva resides with his consort Parvati, the Tibetan Bons say Mount Kailash is in the centre of the universe and is the place of presiding deity of “Demchhog” which puts on tiger skins and garlands of human skulls and holds a vibrant drum in one hand and trident in the other. According to the Tibetan belief, there are 990 rows of deities round the Kailash which include 500 deities called Dorge Phangmo in the Tibetan literature. “Tibetans are usually found doing ‘sashtanga danda pradakshina parikarma’ or prostration circuit of 36 miles inner circle of the Kailash while Hindu pilgrims do the parikarma of 54 miles outer circle,” said Sharma who has been to Kailash Mansarovar three times. “We saw some young Tibetans doing parikarma. When asked why they are doing it at a young age, they replied that three parikarmas of that inner circle are essential according to their religion,” said Sharma. The Buddhists believe that Lord Buddha and his 500 disciples are residing on the Kailash peak and several other Bodhisattvas are residing on nearby peaks of the Kailash. There are remains of eight Buddhist monasteries on the shores of the Mansarowar where Buddhist monks still live. “The circle of Mount Kailash has five Buddhist Gompas which are still found full of monks,” said Sharma. According to Jain literature, Mount Kailash is called Ashtapada and that Lord Adinath Vrishabhadeva, the first Tirthankar of the Jains, has attained his Nirvana at Kailash. “Ashtapada is a place of eight steps and in the second step of the mount, Lord Vrishabhadeva is said have taken penance. This cave is 10 feet high and almost 1 km long. It has a depth of 5 or 20 metre,” said Swami Vikas Giri who has been to Mount Kailash nine times.
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ITBP launches website on yatra
Pitthoragarh, June 18 “This website contains all the information about Kailash and Mansarovar as well as the Kumoan culture during the Yatra period,” said KPS Nimbadia commandant of 7th BN ITBP. Nimbadia has also authored a book under the same title on the same subject. “We have come in contact with ISRO for the arrangement of furnishing satellite imageries of this part of Himalaya during the Yatra on the basis of which the information about weather update could be furnished to the site for the information of general use,” said Nimbadia. “Besides this the ITBP’s efforts to make Kailash Parikrama path and Mansarovar lake litter-free will also be known in the site,” said the commandant informing that from last year ITBP has started briefing Kailash pilgrims on this issue of ecology around Kailash Mansarovar. “For Chinese it is just a picnic spot and they dump bottles and plastic litter there which we have tried to remove with the help of Hindu pilgrims as for Hindus it is as sacred place,” said Nimbadia. The ITBP has also given information concerning alternative route up to base camp Gala from Kathgodam onwards. “This old way can be used as alternative for Mansarovar pilgrims if present route gets blocked due to rainfall or land slides,” said
Nimbadia.
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CM gets 6-foot postcard
Dehradun, June 18 The members of CFGD had been trying to seek an appointment with the Chief Minister to discuss numerous issues of environmental concern and had sent numerous letters and requests through proper channels, but without any success. They also tried to meet him a number of times at the Janata Milan programmes, but failed there too. Around 50 activists, under the banner the “Hamari Awaz Suno”, led by Dr Nitin
Pandey, marched towards the Chief Minister’s residence with a giant postcard. While talking to the media, Dr Pandey said: “Our group had sought an appointment with the Chief Minister five times over the past six months to apprise him of the environmental concerns but we failed to get the same. We just decided to take this step with a hope that we will get some response”. A large posse of policemen, some armed with guns, had barricaded the approach to the Chief Minister’s residence and did not allow the peaceful activists to proceed beyond. A stalemate followed with both sides sticking to their respective positions. Eventually, a personal assistant of the Chief Minister was called to receive the giant post card carrying the request of the CFGD, which was signed by all members. The letter, inter alia, urged the Chief Minister to issue without delay a government order spelling out its decision on transplantation of trees and amendments to the Forest Act for enhancing protection to trees. It also urged the Chief Minister to immediately implement complete ban the use of plastic in the state.
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1960 batch gets nostalgic at IMA reunion
Dehradun, June 18 In total 278 officers of 16 NDA/25 Reg/12 Tech/10 NCC had passed out of the academy in 1960. They had gathered for the course re-union for the Golden
Jubilee course. These soldiers and veterans reunited for two days for rekindling old memories at their Alma Mater. The highlights of the event remained the emotional, heart rendering interactions of the officers. The main events on the itinerary include course photographs, address by the Commandant, visit to the museum at the IMA campus, Jubilee Dinner and Wreath Laying at the IMA war memorial, where all the officers paid homage to the martyrs who fell in the line of duty. Today they gathered at the Chetwoode Hall where they saw their academics record of 1960 when they passed out. Their wives were more excited than their hubbies to see their records in the academics. The course also has a former
Governor of Tripura, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh Lt Gen (Retd) KM Seth PVSM, AVSM and Ex-Naval Chief Admiral Sushil Kumar. The course presented a memento to the Indian Military Academy
(IMA).
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No need to call Army against Maoists: Ex-Lieut-Gen
Dehradun, June 18 “The Army is used when the country has used all its resources and for Maoists all resources hasn’t been utilised as yet. It is easy to bring the Army inside but very difficult to bring it out,” said Seth. He suggested that police and paramilitary forces should be made able to combat the Maoists and no direct involvement of the Army should be there. A national strategy should be adopted and should be put into practice by all the Maoists affected states. He pointed out that we ourselves have given open invitation to the Maoists to occupy the spaces, which hasn’t been ever paid heed to in terms of development. “After the Independence no attention was paid towards the areas which are currently Maoists affected. There is no water, education, roads and hospitals in these areas which gave an open invitation to them to occupy the area.” Major-Gen Vinod Saighal (retd) on the shortage of officers in the Indian Army said one of the main reasons was casualties of the young officers in the Army. Saighal also fought in the war against China in 1965, which our country had lost. “It was a great learning from the war. Though China has better defence than us but one thing is for sure that we will not allow any Chinese or any other force to intrude into the Indian land,” he said. On the training aspect in the Indian Military Academy (IMA) he said the present training at the academy has gone hi-tech. The cadets here are very well aware of the technology and computer. Brig CB Khanduri (retd) felt that at their time in the IMA the cream of the country used to be selected and all other services, including IAS and IPS used to be second option. “The tenure of the training has gone less. The tenure of the commission and the graduation here has been decreased now. A lot of changes have also come in the training and it has gone modernised,” he said.
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Experts discuss oil spill response plans
Dehradun, June 18 The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Vice-Admiral Anil Chopra, Director-General, Indian Coast Guard, and was attended by about 70 delegates from various government departments, ports, oil industry, oil exploration units and state maritime boards. They deliberated on the problem areas pertaining to safety of offshore installations and the preparedness level of oil industries to meet any exigencies from any oil spill. AK Hazarika, Director (Onshore) and VK Jain, Executive Director, represented ONGC at the meeting. Vice-Admiral Anil Chopra in his inaugural address observed that during the past seven months, only one oil spill incident occurred close to the country’s shores and that was from ship MV Malvika, off the Orissa coast on April 19. The other pollution-related incident occurred near south Chennai coast . The shoreline cleanup efforts by the state governments concerned for MV Malvika and the Tamil Nadu incident for the oil bilges discharge incident was swift and
commendable. He expressed his satisfaction with the scheme of implementation and
decision taken at the NOSCDP meetings. Hazarika explained the drilling activities of ONGC on onshore and offshore locations and highlighted the difficulties faced in oil spill management, especially in the deep sea. Jain expressed his gratitude for the leadership of Indian Coast Guard that formulated various policies and procedures and conducted two mock drills during the last year itself, in which response mechanism and preparedness were verified. The NOSDCP, which was first prepared by the Coast Guard and approved by the Committee of Secretaries on November 4, 1993, delineates the roles and responsibilities of various ministries, departments, and other resource agencies. Under this plan, the Indian Coast Guard is the central coordinating authority and the primary agency for coordinating measures that include assistance in preparation of contingency plans for ports and oil handling agencies, conduct of basic and advanced training to the resource personnel, and regular conduct of pollution response exercises and drills. The Gulf of Mexico deepwater oil spill and issues emanating from the same were deliberated and analysed at the meeting. Two presentations on Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) platform and Oil
Fingerprinting and Identification of Polluter by guest lecturers were also presented for the benefit of the delegates.
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Art exhibition begins on the banks of Ganga
Haridwar, June 18 Inaugurating the Snehil Maa Ganga National Art exhibition, state Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik said such events gave a new definition to the city and an opportunity to budding artists to see renowned works. Notably, Snehil Maa Ganga National Art has been involved in the conservation of the Indian culture and promotion of nationalism for the past 18 years. New Delhi-based artist BS Rahi displayed many of his creations on Ganga’s past and her significance. Among other artists who are showcasing their works are Savita Nag, Ram Niranjan, Zakir Hussain, Rita Tiwari, Shashi Jha, Mamta Singh, Baldev and NL Verma. “This is for the first time that I am seeing an art exhibition here, which itself speaks of the lack of such artistic events,” said Atika Chopra, a school teacher who has been residing here for over a year. At the exhibition, local artists and art lovers demanded opening of
an art exhibition centre here.
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Shopping carnival from today
Dehradun June 18 He also said Vibha Anand playing the role of Sugna in Balika Vadhu and pop
playback singer Shipra Goel will be performing on June 20.
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St Joseph’s Academy clinch u-16 trophy
Dehradun, June 18 St Joseph’s Cricket Academy won the toss and elected to bat first. Opener Apoorv of the winning team could score only 26 runs while Priyanshu was the highest scorer with 76 runs. In the DCA team, the highest scorer was Vikas with 63 runs in 42 balls. Moreover, in the final match of the sub-junior section, St Joseph’s Cricket Academy won by 4 wickets against St Michael’s Cricket Academy (Delhi). SJCA made a total score of 113 runs losing 6 wickets. Madhav of SJCA was the highest scorer by making 23 runs.
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Ajabpur Cricket Academy win
Dehradun, June 18 The toss was won by Rising Cricket Academy that elected to bat first. The opening batsman of RCA, Nikhil was the highest scorer of the match with 71 runs in 93 balls. In the first innings of the match, Vijay from the winning team took 3 wickets while he also made 64 runs during the second innings to steer his team to
victory.
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State girls win softball title
Dehradun, June 18 The state girls’ team won the championship beating Bihar in the final while the boys’ team lost in the quarterfinals. Sneh Rana was adjudged the woman of the series and woman of the final match. Uttaranchal Softball Cricket Association president Shah congratulated the players.
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Doon Challenger rip through Doon Boys 5-0
Dehradun, June 18 The bad show started for Doon Boys in the 13th minute when it’s Gopal Thapa hit the self-goal. Abhay Rana (22th and 43rd) of the winning team netted two goals. While Karan (35th) and Mukul (50th) of Doon Challenger chipped in with a goal. The winning team scored goal after goal but there was no retaliation from Doon Boys. Challenger team played a well-organized and man-to-man game to trounce its rival by a big chalk. Meanwhile for tomorrow, Adoiwala Boys Club and Gorkha Heroes will battle it out in another league match.
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Camp to groom budding cricketers
Mussoorie, June 18 More than six teams from the country will be participating in a tournament during the course of the training. Many boys and girls are also participating in the camp to learn innovative techniques of cricket. NK Sharma said the efforts would be made to hone the skills of the participants and prepare them for the national and international matches. A friendly match between Haryana-I and Nagpur was also held. The other teams participating in the camp are Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Nagpur. General secretary of the Uttarakhand Youth Twenty20 Association Javed Butt said the main objective of the camp was to improve the skills of local children and inculcate in them a professional attitude towards training. He said in the forthcoming days several experts from the country would be providing international standard training to the budding cricketers. President of the MSCA Narendar Kumar, Samuel Chand, Palika member Virendar Rawat and others were also present.
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Doon Valley, Doon Eagle play draw
Dehradun, June 18 While for Doon Eagle, Arjun (32th) retaliated to draw the match but the side couldn’t go ahead than
this. A few goal attempts were made during the second half by the two teams but they couldn’t bring fruit. On other side, Doon United was suspended from the league and the second match couldn’t be played. Tomorrow, Khukhri will vie with Garhwal Sporting and XI Star will lock horns with Gypsy.
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